Gympie floods: New images reveal mud mess at Lake Alford, Albert Park

The muddy aftermath of the Gympie flood disaster has been starkly revealed in new aerial photos taken days after the 22.96m high flood swallowed large parts of the city. See the images.

Images captured days after flood waters began to recede across the Gympie region have captured part of what will be a costly and time consuming clean-up in the wake of the February 2022 disaster.

The aerial images, snapped by location intelligence company Nearmaps, paint a picture of the mess left behind by the waters which reached a height of 22.96m, the second highest in recorded history.

The pictures were captured on Wednesday March 2, 2022, three days after the Mary River peaked.

One of the images showed the encroachment of floodwaters at Albert Park, where the Bruce Highway was itself submerged.

A similar sight is visible at the region’s netball courts in Hyne Street, between the Bruce Highway and the Mary River. The courts had that much mud covering them after the flood that it could not be pressure hosed off and had to be scraped off by a bulldozer.

Now the sport is in limbo while the severely damaged courts are assessed.

The aftermath of floodwaters along the Mary River’s banks at the Sands and the popular river walk, near Aldi and Gympie Central Shopping Centre, was captured in another set of images.

The mess left behind at Deep Creek, across the Inglewood bridge near Nick’s Ready Mix, can be observed in a fourth set of pictures.

Another showed the popular Lake Alford Duck Ponds caked in dried mud as waters vanish.

Swollen river levels in the Mary Valley were captured in the aerial pictures snapped at Amamoor too.

The floods caused extensive damage across the region, inundating the CBD and businesses along East Deep Creek and claiming several lives.

Hundreds of residents had to be evacuated from their homes during the height of the crisis, which cut the city into three parts for several days.

Nolan Meats suffered close to $15m in losses, and the Mary Valley Rattler has been shut indefinitely as damage to its tracks is assessed.